Little House by the Railway Line

2010 Goals

Concrete goals

Cook and eat liver
Learn to make soft cheese
Grow potatoes
Grow and can paste tomatoes
Learn to make puff pastry
Swim 20 miles
Do an online food hygiene course
Knit a pair of socks

Less concrete goals

Work on my prayer life
Make bread more often
All yoghurt homemade
Make some progress on cardigan
Flowers and candles at home

Preserved in 2010

January: Marmalade, 7 1/2 standard jars, 4 tiny jars

Projects in Progress/ Planned

Navy and pink lap quilt
Hidden stars bed quilt
Sampler cardigan
Amish Alphabet Cross-Stitch
Knitted scrap blanket
Planned: summer blouse and skirt

Making Marmalade

15:11, Monday 9 February 2009 .. Posted in Preserving .. 2 comments .. Link

Last week I realised that Seville Oranges were "in season" (not here, obviously, but in Spain, so that's as close as it gets for England). I was feeling like it had been rather a long time since I'd been able to make jams and was missing it, so thought my husband might like a supply of homemade marmalade. He agreed, and bought the supplies while he did the grocery run on Friday night - Seville Oranges and lots of sugar.

I used the recipe in Delia Smith's How to Cook Book Three, but I think the one on the orange bag looked about the same. I had to scale the recipe up, though, as the recipe was for 2lb of oranges, and they were sold in bags of 1.5kg (about 2lb). What I thought was really odd was that the recipe on the side of the bag used 1kg of oranges, and they only sell them in 1.5kg bags. Thought that was a bit cheeky, forcing you to buy more than you need (especially since they're too sour to eat - the only other thing I think you could do with them would by candy them, and that look far more complicated than marmalade).

First, I juiced the oranges (and one lemon, for additional pectin).

Then strained the pips out of the juice through muslin.

That was an incredibly sticky and messy procedure. It was also quite painful for me, as there's a patch on one of my fingers where, inexplicably, the skin is very dry and tends to crack and break. I think some of the citric acid got in and it stung like crazy. Next time I do this, I will wear rubber gloves.

Then I scraped the segment-skin and pith out of the skin and added them to the muslin, while G shredded the peel (quite coarsely, partly because he likes thick-shred marmalade, and partly because ti was quicker that way). The juice and the peel went into the pan, and I tied the muslin into a bag and onto the side of the pan.

Then we let that cook for a while. It was supposed to be about two hours, until the peel goes soft and the pith dissolves into pectin, but I ended up leaving it for about three, as a friend came round with her baby for a visit and we had lunch.

Then I removed the bag and added the sugar.

I stirred that slowly over a low heat until the sugar crystals had all dissolved.

Then brought it to a rolling boil and left for fifteen minutes to reduce before testing for set.

It looks markedly different there to before reducing, which I hadn't noticed while actually making it on Saturday.

When it had set we sterilised jars and poured it in. I'm always glad to have G's help at this point, when I start lifting a huge pan of boiling sugary liquid. We got 11 decent sized jars, 2 little ones, and half of another random one that I hadn't anticipated needing and consequently wasn't properly sterilised. We put that in the fridge as soon as it was cool enough and will eat it first. We'd already given one away to some friends who visited for supper when I took this picture.

The very little jars I'm thinking might make a nice gift for someome, if I do tiny jars of jam in the summer as well.

I ate some on toast on Sunday, and I might even be converted to liking the stuff. It was nicer than I remember marmalade being.
Leave a Comment

Untitled Comment

15:47, Monday 9 February 2009 .. Posted by Isabella
Looks yummy. I

Untitled Comment

15:54, Monday 9 February 2009 .. Posted by morningsunshine
cool! i love your pan! I have never seen anything liek it on this side of "the pond". looks like the perfect type of pan for jams and other "pouring" stuff.

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About Me

Hello! I'm Jo, I'm 27 and I live in a small house in England with my husband. I work full time in an office, and in my spare time I help out with Sunday school and the church youth group. When I have time, I enjoy reading, cookery and crafts, and a bit of gardening. We don't have any kids, but would really love to have some one day. Thanks for visiting me here!

Some words are different in England and America, so if you're American and I use an unfamiliar word, it might be in my little dictionary

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Little House by the Railway Line

2010 Goals

Preserved in 2010

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Making Marmalade

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